The last decade or so has seen the blossoming of a new generation of vocal talents from Spain, many of whom have been expressing their art through early music. A leading figure in this artistic array has been the soprano Nuria Rial, a singer blessed with an unaffected declamatory style, sweet and yet intimate in its emotional charm. In recent years the career of Rial has seen her tackle with success music by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, as well as Pergolesi and much Italian seicento repertoire. This newly-prepared Glossa album turns the clock back to collect together recordings made by the fresh voice of the Catalonian soprano in the years immediately following her studies at the Musik-Akademie in Basel.

Joining the ensemble Orphénica Lyra of José Miguel Moreno Rial participated in a number of recordings demonstrating not just the radiant beauty of her voice but also all the understanding and nuances which that master of a variety of plucked-stringed instruments, Moreno, has been able to bring to Spanish music of the Renaissance and Baroque over the years. Over two attractively-priced CDs Nuria Rial expresses, with skill and pleasure, her instinctive understanding of the emotional temperature of pieces by the likes of Mudarra, Pisador, Fuenllana and Daça. Rial also make a joyously sympathetic contribution to a selection of Spanish works written by the underrated Piacenza-born composer Francisco Corselli with accompaniment from another Glossa stalwart Emilio Moreno and his El Concierto Español.

A compelling reminder of the richness of Spanish music from earlier centuries (admirably captured in the fullness of the Glossa style) and deliciously rendered by the sensual musical intelligence of Nuria Rial.

There is still much work to be done in creating performing editions of Baroque music originating in Spain (and then going out and performing it...), yet this is just one area of musical life today that Emilio Moreno is contributing to. To follow on from delving into the popular culture of the turn of the 19th century, as epitomized by the tonadilla, which he successfully recreated for Glossa on La Tirana contra Mambrú, Moreno – along with El Concierto Español – turns now to the world of allegorical courtly serenatas as the shifting political national landscapes of the 17th century were disintegrating into the War of the Spanish Succession. [read more...]

If Spanish music from the Renaissance has become increasingly appreciated in recent decades that from the turn of the 19th century remains a blur for many. Not so for Emilio Moreno who – in addition to his musical expertise inthe Baroque and Classical, especially that gained through long association with the Orchestra of the 18th Century – has become something of a specialist in the music of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain. Moreno has been combining Herculean labours transcribing the scores of tonadillas from two centuries past with bringing their populist texts and music to audiences of the 21st century – both with singular success. Here he describes the nature of the dramatic genre that is the tonadilla and the level of its original success acting as barometer of the feelings of the ordinary people in Spain, especially those of Madrid. [read more...]

Whether it is as a string player, as a director of ensembles like La Real Cámara or El Concierto Español, or as a teacher and a scholar Emilio Moreno has been applying his talents in the cause of the music that he loves and defends: the previously ignored area of the Spanish Baroque and pre-Classical eras. Fortunately — and through the efforts of musicians such as Moreno — this area is far less of a desert on record than it once was (for Moreno there could still be yet more concerts). Moreno’s wide experience of such music is enhanced by his long-standing involvement with Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, where he is the leader of the viola section.[read more...]